Christmas Lights
by MeltingSunlight
Summary: Jade's kicked out of her house for christmas- Tori's house always has room for one more. JORI
1. Chapter 1

Jade watched the lights on the christmas tree flicker on and off in random patterns through the glass of a lower floor window. Other than the cautious shadows created by the tiny golden LED's, the house was still and quiet. She didn't know who lived there. Couldn't say she cared a lot.

Somewhere in the distance a car horn blared out and a man's voice carried, angry and quick. A second voice shouted back, a dog barked, and the dark streets fell quiet again. A cutting wind bore occasional breaths of icy drizzle that coated everything in seconds, leaving all it touched dripping and shivering, Jade included.

The bench she sat on was cold and damp, and faced a road. On the other side of the road there stretched a huddled line of houses. They were all in darkness, save for the house directly across from the goth, which had one room erratically illuminated by the christmas tree.

From the corner of her eye, Jade became aware of an approaching figure way down the street to her left. She pulled out her phone and tried to look busy, hoping they'd pass by without asking her what she was doing sat on a bench alone at fifteen minutes to midnight. Apart from a message from Cat about her brother getting a silver painted pinecone stuck in his mouth, there was nothing new. The figure was getting closer and Jade started to text Cat back as slowly as she could, glancing at the nearing person every other word.

_"Where'd he even find a pinecone? Is it still in there?"_ She wrote, aware of how obvious her unusual level of attention was. For the last few months, she'd mainly only given one word answers- even to Cat.

The figure was now close enough to tell it was a she. Cross-armed and face buried in a scarf, it was hard to tell much in the darkness. Maybe a leather jacket. Very skinny jeans. Long hair.

_Not much of a threat. _Jade decided. Her phone buzzed in her hand and she gratefully welcomed the distraction- the woman didn't seem much of a threat, but statistically was more likely to stop and see if she was okay. Maybe the phone would deter her.

_"It was one of his special decorations. He ate most of it."_

Jade pulled a face. That boy was a trip.

As the woman drew closer Jade focused all her attention on the screen, reading the same line over and over again.

_It was one of his special decorations. He ate most of it. It was one of his special decorations. He ate most of it. It was one of his special decorations. He-_

"..Jade?"

_Fuck. _The goth knew the face she'd see before her eyes reached their destination. Tori stood a few feet away, peering at her over the top of her scarf.

"Jade what are you doing sat out here at this time?" She said, her voice full of typical Tori concern as she took the last few steps to stand in front of the other girl.

"I could ask you the same." Jade mumbled reluctantly, realising there was no avoiding conversation.

Tori sighed. "Trina's stupid car broke down on the way back from the smoothie bar and her stupid boyfriend picked her up on a stupid motorbike so I get to walk back." She huffed.

Jade frowned. "She left you to walk back alone?"

Tori gave her a look. "Careful Jade, starting to sound like you care."

Jade just shrugged. She was too tired to argue. She realised her mistake quickly, but not quick enough to save herself from the immediate suspicion her lack of a sarcastic retort evoked.

Tori perched herself on the edge of the bench Jade sat on and tightened her arms across her chest. "So, uh... What _are_ you doing out here? It's freezing..."

Jade glanced at the other girl. "I was... I was kicked out." She sighed, deciding against lying. After all, what was the point?

"What? But... It's christmas eve!" The brunette exclaimed.

Jade didn't meet her gaze. "Yeah." Was all she could say. Technically it had been the 23rd when she was kicked out but it must be past midnight now, so she supposed it didn't matter.

_Merry christmas. _She thought numbly. The christmas tree still flashed happily in the window opposite.

"So you're just.. sitting here?"

"Yeah." Jade repeated.

Tori was quiet for a while. She supposed Jade would usually have headed for Beck's house, but since they'd broken up a few months back she'd avoided him like a proximity mine. The wicked temper Jade was so famed for seemed to have been worn down to an exhausted irritability in the last few weeks and it hadn't gone unnoticed. In a strange way, Tori found it made the goth seem more approachable.

"Do you.. want to come back with me?" Tori tried, unsure how the suggestion would go down.

Jade snorted. "Yeah, 'cause I'm sure your parents would _love_ to have me over on christmas eve."

Tori frowned. "They wouldn't mind. It _is_ christmas."

Jade looked down the road to her right, wishing for a miracle to come and whisk her away. Tori's parents were lovely, and she never knew how to handle it. God knows what the christmas spirit had done to further their temperaments. Then again, she didn't really want to spend the whole night on a bench either.

Jade groaned. "Okay.. fine. But if Trina comes near me I'm out."

"There's something we can both agree on." Tori muttered. "Come on," She said, standing back up from the bench. "I can't feel my toes."

"Something else we can both agree on." Jade admitted wearily.

Tori smiled before burying the lower half of her face back below her knitted purple scarf. "Wow. Twice in one night. What's happening?" She joked, her voice slightly muffled.

Jade smiled weakly. "Witchcraft." She said matter-of-factly.

The two walked in silence for the journey back to Tori's house. When chez Vega finally came into view it was five to one in the morning. The house was dark but when they reached the door they found it unlocked- Jade couldn't help but compare Tori's parents to her own. Her parents, she knew, would have locked her out without hesitation regardless of the date.

"They're all asleep, so you don't have to worry about Trina." Tori said quietly, as she stood aside to let Jade in, closing the door behind her. The house was warm and it came as an immediate relief after so long in the unnatural cold outside. Hollywood's temperature rarely dropped this low.

"I suppose that's one good thing." The goth mumbled.

"Yeah..." Tori looked around. "Well, usually I'd offer the sofa, but with no one knowing you're here you might give some family members a heart attack in the morning."

"I'm not that scary." Jade defended.

"No, but Trina is convinced that her eyes are especially sensitive to light in the mornings, so she forces everyone to walk around in the dark while she wakes up. She's been known to accidentally throw herself down on top of guests on the sofa before."

Jade wrinkled her nose. She really didn't want to be sat on by Trina.

"There's a load of heavy boxes full of christmas decorations on the spare bed at the moment," Tori continued, "and I can't get them off without waking the whole house so until we move them tomorrow I guess you'll have to sleep in my room."

Jade looked doubtful. "Well... I suppose..."

Tori smiled a bit and began to pick her way across the dark room towards the stairs. She managed the whole walk to her bedroom without walking into anything, which was more than could be said for Jade, who caught her shin on the corner of the table with a mutter of 'Son of a bitch.'

Once in the safety of Tori's room, the brunette put a lamp on and sat heavily down on her bed. "Well, I'll go brush my teeth and get changed... I'll see if we have a new toothbrush for you. There should be something around here somewhere that would fit you- oh, here-" she said, plucking a black hoodie out from under a red coat that hung on the back of her door. She chucked it to Jade who caught it and gave her a brief grateful look. "Thanks.."

Tori returned the look and then slipped back out of her room to the bathroom, leaving Jade to change into the hoodie. She didn't have anything else to wear other than her jeans and Tori was back before she could make a decision as to whether or not to take them off.

The brunette stood in a small burgundy and white christmas nightie and offered her a yellow toothbrush. Jade took it. "Thanks." she said again, secretly wondering if she had the strength left in her to walk all the way to the bathroom and back. She did. Tori's toothpaste had her name written on the tube in black marker pen and tasted like strawberries. As Jade brushed, she realised everything in the room had either Trina or Tori's name written on it- shampoo, conditioner, even hairbrushes- the goth dread to think what it must be like to share such a confined area with Trina constantly.

She traipsed back to Tori's room to find the girl had already gotten into bed.

"I only really wear nighties," Tori said, sounding half asleep, "I couldn't find anything to replace your jeans. I don't mind if you just leave them off."

Jade supposed she had little choice. "Do you want me to sleep on the floor?"

Tori pointed at the side of the bed behind her without looking. "I didn't save you from a bench to make you sleep on the floor." She murmured.

Exhaustion getting the better of her, Jade pulled her jeans off and crawled into bed beside her frenemy, though she'd been slacking in her duties as an enemy recently.

"Tell me what happened with your parents tomorrow?" Tori asked as she leaved over to turn the lamp off.

Jade closed her eyes. "Yeah."

Tori sighed in the dark. "Night Jade."

For a moment Jade considered pretending to be asleep already, but considering Tori had taken her in on christmas eve when even her own parents didn't want her, she answered.

"Night Tori."


	2. Chapter 2

**_AN- Sorry it took so long to update, I was struck down with flu :( but I'm back now 3_**

Tori resisted the urge to throw her apple core at the back of Trina's head as her older sister asked casually why it had taken her so long to get home the night before.

"Because Trina," Tori said irritably, "_I _had to walk home. And I found Jade along the way."

Trina gave her a look. "Your freaky friend's here?"

"She's _not_ freaky."

Trina held her hands up in mock surrender. "Whatever you say."

Tori dropped her apple core into the bin and turned her attention to her dad as he came down the stairs.

"Hi dad. Jade's here. Hope you don't mind if she stays for a bit." Tori hoped that her parents really would be okay with the goth being there. Her dad frowned and scratched his head.

"Well she can stay, sure, but wouldn't she rather be at home on christmas eve?" He asked, stifling a yawn.

Tori shrugged and pulled her hairband out of her hair. "She said she was kicked out."

"Who was kicked out?"

Tori's mom came down the stairs behind her husband heaving one of the boxes that had been on the spare bed.

"Tori's freaky friend." Trina mumbled. "Trina! Shut up!" Tori growled, pinging the little brown band at her sister's face.

The older girl dodged it and stuck out her tongue but didn't say anything further.

Tori's mom dropped the box at the bottom of the stairs with a thud. Trina referred to Jade as 'Tori's freaky friend' often enough for her mom to know who she meant without asking. "Oh. Is everything okay?" She asked.

Tori nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure it'll all work out before tomorrow."

Tori's mom smiled. "Well, if she needs anything let me know."

"Thanks mom. I'll go see if she's awake yet."

Tori found Jade sat dressed on the edge of the bed fiddling with the ends of her dark hair.

"Hey.." The brunette said somewhat cautiously, sitting down beside the other girl. "Didn't realise you had woken up."

"Yeah, thanks for the hoodie, I put it back on your door." Jade answered, pointing over her shoulder to where Tori could see the hoodie the goth had worn hanging off its original hook. The girl sounded tired and slightly defeated. Tori couldn't help but notice how civil Jade was being, which felt like a harsh thing to think of her friend but it was true; Jade hadn't said a single mean thing to her since she'd found her on that bench. Tori chewed her lip.

"So, uh... What happened at home?" The brunette asked.

Jade opened her mouth to reply and then closed it again and looked away.

"They don't want me there anymore." She said quietly.

Tori's eyes took up their typical tone of concern. "What do you mean?"

"My mom decided to walk to work yesterday... She stopped to get a coffee and bumped into Beck..."

Tori didn't understand. "What happened?"

Jade slowly sunk her face into her hands. "And he accidentally told her something I didn't want her to know." Jade said finally, in a way that made it clear she wasn't keen on elaborating.

"Well, If you want to talk about it..."

Jade smiled at her briefly. "Thanks." She said. "Maybe later."

Tori smiled brightly. "Well, I'm going shopping for any last minute christmas presents, you in?"

Jade knew she was perking up and changing the subject for her benefit. She was grateful. "Yeah, why not..." The goth sighed, standing up from her perch on Tori's black and white stripy bed. "Are the others coming?"

Tori stood with her and shook her head. "Andre's taking his grandma to the hairdressers, Cat's looking after her brother- something about a pinecone- and Robbie's got family over." She left Beck out, partly because she didn't know where he was, partly because Jade more than likely didn't want to think about her ex after whatever had happened.

Jade smirked when she remembered Cat's text about her brother.

"So it's just you and me." Tori beamed.

Jade rolled her eyes. "Can't wait." However, Tori's happiness was infectious and Jade found herself a little cheered up by the welcome distraction of shopping. She even had her card in her jeans pocket from when she grabbed it off the side on the way out of her house.

Tori grabbed her jacked from where it was slung on the back of her desk chair. "Come on then, before Trina catches on and invites herself."

That was enough to get Jade's unquestioning obedience, and they both left the house as quickly as they could. Tori took her mom's car and both girls laughed when Trina's angry face appeared at the window as they reversed out of the drive. The weather had cleared up, and although it was still cold, the sun had returned and was trying it's hardest to get Hollywood back to it's usual warmth.

Tori's mom's car smelled like peaches and screen wash, which Jade found wasn't such a bad combination. At first, the goth couldn't work out quite _why _it smelled so much like peaches, until she noticed a little pink air freshener partially buried under CD's in the space between the seats where keys and drinks were usually put. She fished it out and fiddled with it whilst Tori muttered colourfully about other driver's poor indication abilities.

Tori noticed it in Jades hands as she pulled up at traffic lights.

"Trina broke the little string," She said accusingly. "It used to hang on the rear-view."

Jade noticed that there was indeed no string looped through the small hole at the top of the disk. "What did you do with it?"

Tori's eyes flicked up to the changing lights. "The string? Probably there somewhere, can't imagine Trina would be bothered to carry it all the way in the house to the bin."

Jade dug around under the CD's until she found a thin gold piece of elastic. She threaded it back through the hold and squinted at it as she tried to tie a fiddly knot between the two ends. One end was frayed a little but after a few minutes she emerged victorious, and when she was sure Tori wouldn't need to look in her mirror, triumphantly hung it back where it belonged. Sometimes fixing things made her feel better, and she told the brunette as much when in a surprised tone, she thanked her.

It was nearly 11 when they reached the mall, and Jade was immediately thankful that it was just the two of them. The place was packed and by the looks of it, it was going to take all of her patience to not swing at a small child without having to cater to Cat's randomness and Robbie's dim little puppet's flirting.

"Who's idea was this?" The goth asked as a kid flew past the passenger side door riding a shopping cart.

Tori held her hand up. "I'll take that crown," She clapped. "Vamos."

With a huff Jade got out of the car and with some amusement noted that the kid had crashed his shopping cart into the side of one of the recycling bins and now lay sprawled on the ground.

Tori gave her a disapproving look. "Don't laugh at a kid." She scolded.

Jade gave her a look. "If I'd gotten out of that car any earlier, he'd have mowed me down with that thing."

Tori made a sound of reluctant agreement.

The inside of the mall was something like what Jade imagined hell's fairground to look like. There were ambitious, glossy christmas displays lighting up windows, drenched in fake snow and boxes wrapped to look like picturesque presents, and stuffed reindeers with bright red noses placed here and there. From the high glass ceiling hung massive christmassy baubles on mammoth sized pieces of ribbon, which glittered cheerily as they spun slowly. Door frames were draped in tinsel of all colours, and staff all wore santa hats or reindeer antler headbands. There was even a stall selling mulled wine in burgundy coloured paper cups under a huge, ornately decorated christmas tree. People were swarmed everywhere, Moms dragging children away from whatever they'd found that they couldn't live without from a shop shelf, teenagers milling around in groups messing around taking pictures of each other with the toy reindeers, and lone adults rushing for last minute present epiphanies for that one taxing relative that either already had it all or never gave any clues as to what they wanted, looking like little christmas trees with bags instead of decorations. They were all making noise, which mixed with the sound of Frank Sinatra singing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" over hidden speakers and came together make relaxation-repellant.

Unlike Jade, Tori seemed entranced by it all.

"I love christmas!" She gushed, setting off towards the first shop she saw, a joke shop with two big blow up candy canes positioned to look like roman columns at each side of the door. The staff were all smiling and dressed as elves and Jade had to admit that they'd put a lot of effort in to keeping the little shop up to standards with the bigger names in the building.

It was bustling with people, and Jade scowled at them all until Tori smacked her arm and told her not to be a grinch, unable to keep a straight face as she did. They quickly moved on to the next shop, a clothes shop, where Tori picked up a jumper the same colour as Cat's hair with "I'm a cat person" printed on the front in big black letters.

"Jade, I've so found Cat's present." Tori called over her shoulder as the goth manoeuvred around the displays to get to her.

"Are you sure?" Jade asked, looking at the plain magenta jumper.

Tori turned it around to show her the writing.

"Ah. I have to admit that's pretty 'her'" Jade conceded. "Go for it." She added.

Tori hung it over her arm and they both swam through the people towards the cashier, joining the lengthy queue.

"How many people do you have left to buy for?" Jade asked, praying the list wouldn't be overly long.

"Uh, just you, actually." Tori admitted. "You're very difficult to buy for."

"You don't have to, I won't take offence or anything."

"No, I wan't to, you got my cinema tickets last week when Trina stole my purse." Tori said with a determined look.

Jade was about to half heartedly argue when Tori reached the front of the queue and the woman at the counted interrupted her chances. The brunette paid and the two girls left the shop.

"Smoothie?" Tori suggested.

Jade nodded. "Yeah, why not."

Tori gave her a strange look but before Jade could ask what it was about, the other girl had already set off towards the smoothie bar and the goth could only follow and wonder. The most unrelievedly and annoyingly loud group of kids were sat along the main bar and Jade only had to give Tori a look to let her know that they were going to be sitting as far away from them as possible to avoid any festive murder. Tori didn't argue.

Jade checked her texts as she waited for Tori to come with their smoothies. Apart from Cat's brother having apparently recovered from the pinecone incident, there was no news.

She put her phone down and looked towards the brunette as she returned to the small round table Jade had found carrying two bright red smoothies in tall glasses.

"Have you heard from your parents?" Tori asked sympathetically when she saw Jade scowling at he phone.

Jade snorted. "Yeah, right." The goth could see from the look on Tori's face that she wanted to know what had happened, but she was too polite to ask. Jade could only be grateful, she wasn't yet sure if she could talk about it as she had said she might earlier on.

They talked about school for a while, about upcoming productions and assignments and classes. Jade's math and Spanish class had had some changes made to them and it turned out that she would be joining Tori and Cat's classes for the two subjects next year. Tori was half way through texting Cat to tell her when suddenly inspiration hit her.

"Jade, wait here, I'll be right back." The Latina said, bouncing up from her seat and grabbing her bag.

Jade watched her drink the last sip of her smoothie. "Where are you going?"

"To get your present- I'll know if you follow me so stay."

Jade held her hands up. "You don't _have _to buy me a-"

Tori narrowed her eyes at her.

"Wild horses couldn't drag me." Jade amended.

Tori smiled, appeased, and dashed off into the crowds. Jade sighed and shook her head. She had to admit that spending time with Tori wasn't so bad. She sipped at her smoothie and scrolled down through the slap update's she'd missed over the last 24 hours.

"Jade?"

Jade froze. She turned and cursed her very existence as she found Beck stood behind her.


End file.
